convent and a middle school for girls, Jazłowiec, in the donated Poniatowski palace close to the ruins of the local fortress. This soon became an important spiritual and cultural centre. Also in 1863 the congregation received the decretum laudis from Pope Pius IX, who said, in blessing her work: "This congregation is for Poland". In 1874 the final approval was confirmed, and in 1889 the constitutions were accepted. In 1883 the congregation erected a statue of the Immaculate Conception of the Godmother in the convent's chapel. It was blessed by archbishop Sigismund Felix Feliński, and in 1939 crowned by the Polish primate August Cardinal Hlond. So many girls came to the convent school in Jazłowiec that 10 years after its opening, the construction of another one in Jarosław on the San River began. The monastery in Słonim in Lithuania, where the sisters worked in hiding for 11 years, was of a special concern. During her 50 years' activity as superior of the congregation, Darowska opened free primary schools for children from nearby villages and neighborhoods at all houses of the congregation. At her death on 5 January 1911 in Jazłowiec at the age of 83 she left seven convents with 350 sisters. Her ashes are in Jazłowiec and at the generalate in Szymanów. Approach and meaning In 1904, the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote: "Praise for your wise work and honour to your merit and goodness". Darowska answered: "I do not look at the results (praise) of our work. Those results do not belong to us. If they exist, they belong to God, for the good of our beloved and divided country". References External links Congregations website about Marcelina Darowska biography, rough translated photo from Marcelina Darowska 1827 births 1911 deaths People from Cherkasy Oblast People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent 20th-century venerated Christians Polish beatified people Founders of Catholic religious communities 19th-century Polish Roman Catholic nuns Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II 20th-century Polish Roman Catholic nuns People from Yazlovets